EXCLUSIVE: Ireland-UK producer Mike Downey and Istanbul-based Emir Külal Haznevi have joined forces on boutique film financing outfit Saudade Ink to develop, produce and invest in arthouse cinema from across the world.

The film production and development fund, which has been pulled together with a consortium of private individuals from Turkey and the Middle East, is looking to spend up to €2 million ($2.3m) a year in its first two years, making strategic investments of between €150,000 and €200,000 in individual projects. 

Downey and Haznevi estimate that they will make investments in five to eight productions from leading international auteur directors per year, with some seed funding for development.

The pair will be in Cannes this year scouting for potential investments and also as the executive producers of Cannes Palme d’Or contenders Parallel Tales by  Asghar Farhadi and All of a Sudden by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Saudade Ink consolidates a long-running production relationship between Downey and Haznevi, who previously collaborated on Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border and recent Oscar candidate Franz, as well as such auteur fare including Rajko Grlic’s It All Ends Here and Antonio Nuic’s Looping, which is set for international premiere later in the year.

“Emir and I have been working together on a wide range of productions for a number of years now,” says former European Film Academy chair and Downey Ink Principal Downey.

“The time had come to formalize our business relationship, and the coming together of the film fund gave us the ideal opportunity to do that. And what better time to do it than with a couple of our strategic investments being selected for competition in Cannes.”

“Our connections with talent at the highest level, has been the catalyst for the bringing together of the Saudade Ink. fund,” says Syrian—born, Istanbul-based Haznevi, “Our initial investments have seen a low-risk strategy already bear fruit on individual projects, ranging from Franz which had its world premiere in Toronto as well as Green Border. We have had our four last films in a row all launched at FIAPF ‘A’ Class festivals, and the commensurate sales have resonated with our investors.”

Downey was previously CEO of London and Dublin-based Film and Music Entertainment and is no stranger to the film financing game having produced over 100 films and launched his first production company on the German Stock Market at the DAX Neuer Markt during its hey-day. 

“We have contacts to European and global talent that is second to none and as our recent output shows with my Girls on Wire by Vivian Qu, from China in Berlin Competition and Farhadi and Hamaguchi in Cannes we can access talent at the highest level. World cinema, in the sense of ‘world music’ has always been my passion and it is reflected in the 100+ films I’ve made all over the world,’ he said

Haznevi was born in 1986 in Syria. He graduated in Cinema Studies at Marmara University and founded Saudade Film in 2015. He has worked as a creator and producer in more than 250 episodes for a wide variety of Turkish and international TV including Türk Caz Standartlari Enstitüsü,  and Muasir.

He and Downey are also currently developing his first feature-length film The Sun, The Moon and The Eleven Stars as a director.

The pair Saudade Ink as a script driven venture, pointing to their past work connecting them with a range of writers including James Ellroy, the late Gunter Grass, Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), Colm Toibin, David Grossman, Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List), IDA writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz, VICE Group founder and CEO Shane Smith.

The partnership is non-exclusive and Haznevi and Downey will still run their own individual slates through their respective companies Saudade and Downey Ink.   

Haznevi has a number of projects currently in production and development. Downey continues his partnership with Sarka Cimbalova’s Prague-based Marlene Film with whom he partnered on the last three Agnieszka Holland films, Franz, Green Border and Charlatan.

Further projects with Holland and Cimbalova are in the works. In addition, Downey’s screenplay adaptation of Albanian epistolary novel If I Were A Boy by Haki Stërmilli directed and co-written by Fatmir Koci, begins shooting in the late fall of this year.

Other projects include feature documentary Don’t Stop Dreaming about the Rio de Janeiro Ballet phenomenon Projeto ViDançar, which is due to begin production this November. He also has works in the pipeline with Chinese director Vivian Qu.

No stranger to working with hi-end art house talent, Downey worked closely with a wide range of film makers during his 25 year presence on the board of the European Film Academy collaborating with the likes of Wim Wenders, Istvan Szabo, Sir Ben Kingsley, Pawel Pawlikowski, David Mackenzie, Krysztof Zanussi, Krzysztof Zulawski, Humbert Balsam, Francis Boespflug, Ildiko Enyedi, Agnes Jaoui, Mika Kaurismaki, Cedric Klapisch, Domenico Procacci, and Jim Sheridan.